{"id":35290,"date":"2017-11-06T14:30:01","date_gmt":"2017-11-06T03:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=35290"},"modified":"2017-11-06T11:13:14","modified_gmt":"2017-11-06T00:13:14","slug":"asias-new-entente","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/asias-new-entente\/","title":{"rendered":"Asia\u2019s new entente"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

US President Donald Trump is arriving in Asia at a moment when the region\u2019s security situation is practically white-hot. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, recognising<\/a> that the world\u2019s \u2018center of gravity is shifting to the heart of the Indo-Pacific\u2019, called on the region\u2019s democratic powers to pursue \u2018greater engagement and cooperation\u2019. They\u2014including Trump\u2019s US\u2014should heed that call. In fact, only an alliance of democracies can ensure the emergence of a strong rules-based order and a stable balance of power in the world\u2019s most economically dynamic region.<\/p>\n

In recent years, as Tillerson acknowledged, China has taken \u2018provocative actions\u2019, such as in the South China Sea<\/a>, that challenge international law and norms. And this behaviour is set to continue, if not escalate. Last month\u2019s 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China effectively crowned President Xi Jinping\u2014who has spearheaded a more muscular foreign policy, in service of his goal of establishing China as a global superpower\u2014as the country\u2019s emperor.<\/p>\n

Just as Germany\u2019s rapid ascent prior to World War I spurred a \u2018triple entente\u2019 among France, Russia and the United Kingdom, China\u2019s increasingly assertive behavior is creating strong impetus for the Asia\u2013Pacific democracies to build a more powerful coalition. After all, as recent experience in the South China Sea has made clear, no single power can impose sufficient costs on China for its maritime and territorial revisionism, much less compel Chinese leaders to change course.<\/p>\n

This is not to say that no country has been able to challenge China. Just this summer, India stood up to its muscle-flexing neighbour in a 10-week border standoff<\/a>. China has been using construction projects to change the status quo on the remote Himalayan plateau of Doklam, just as it has so often done in the South China Sea. India intervened, stalling China\u2019s building activity. Had US President Barack Obama\u2019s administration shown similar resolve in the South China Sea, perhaps China would not now be in possession of seven militarised artificial islands there.<\/p>\n

In any case, securing a broader shift in China\u2019s foreign policy and stabilising the Asia\u2013Pacific region\u2019s power dynamics will require more than one country holding the line on any one issue. A US that is willing to employ new tools, a more confident Japan and India, and an Australia vexed by China\u2019s meddling<\/a> in its domestic affairs must work together to constrain Chinese behavior.<\/p>\n

The good news is that an entente has already begun to emerge among the region\u2019s key democracies. America\u2019s relationship with India, in particular, has been undergoing what Tillerson called a \u2018profound transformation\u2019, as the two countries become \u2018increasingly global partners with growing strategic convergence\u2019. The US now holds more joint defence exercises with India<\/a> than with any other country. Such cooperation puts the two countries in a strong position to fulfill Tillerson\u2019s vision of serving \u2018as the eastern and western beacons of the Indo-Pacific\u2019.<\/p>\n

Engagement with Japan, too, has deepened. This year\u2019s Malabar exercise\u2014an annual naval exercise in the Indian Ocean involving the US, India and Japan\u2014was the largest and most complex since it began a quarter-century ago. Focused on destroying enemy submarines, it involved more than 7,000 personnel from the US alone, and featured for the first time aircraft carriers from all three navies: America\u2019s nuclear-powered USS Nimitz<\/em>, Japan\u2019s Izumo helicopter carrier, and India\u2019s aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya<\/em>.<\/p>\n

As Tillerson pointed out, this trilateral engagement among the US, India and Japan is already bringing important benefits. But \u2018there is room to invite others, including Australia, to build on the shared objectives and initiatives\u2019.<\/p>\n

So far, Australia has sought to avoid having to choose between its security ally, the US, and its main economic partner, China. Despite Defence Minister Marise Payne\u2019s recent declaration that \u2018Australia is very interested in a quadrilateral engagement with India, Japan and the United States\u2019, the government seems to be hedging its bets. For example, while it sought this year to rejoin the Malabar exercise\u2014from which it withdrew a decade ago to appease China\u2014it sought to do so only as an \u2018observer<\/a>\u2019.<\/p>\n

This approach is untenable. If Australia is to free itself of Chinese meddling, it will need to go beyond implementing new domestic safeguards to take a more active role in defending rules and norms beyond its borders, both on land and at sea.<\/p>\n

In the coming years, the Indo-Pacific power balance will be determined, first and foremost, by events in the Indian Ocean and East Asia. Containing China will therefore require, first, efforts to restrict the country\u2019s maritime activities\u2014such as measures to safeguard vital sea lines and build maritime domain awareness\u2014and, second, geo-economic initiatives to counter China\u2019s coercive leverage over smaller countries. All of Asia\u2019s democratic powers must be on board.<\/p>\n

Calls by the US for closer cooperation bode well for this process, though the US still needs to focus more on the globally ascendant and aggressive China than on a declining Russia. The overwhelming victory of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe<\/a>\u2014who has touted the idea of establishing a \u2018democratic security diamond<\/a>\u2019 in the Asia\u2013Pacific\u2014in his country\u2019s recent general election is also likely to help to drive cooperation forward.<\/p>\n

To be sure, any entente among Asian democracies is unlikely to take the shape of a formal alliance. Rather, the objective should be for democratic powers to reach a broad strategic understanding, based on shared values. It is those values, after all, that set them apart: as Tillerson recognised, while Trump\u2019s upcoming visit to Beijing will undoubtedly draw much global attention, the US cannot have the kind of relationship with non-democratic China that it can have with a major democracy.<\/p>\n

By pursuing cooperation, the Indo-Pacific\u2019s democratic powers can shore up an inclusive, rules-based order that underpins peace, prosperity, stability and freedom of navigation in the region. That is the only way to thwart China\u2019s effort to establish itself as the hegemon of an illiberal regional order.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US President Donald Trump is arriving in Asia at a moment when the region\u2019s security situation is practically white-hot. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, recognising that the world\u2019s \u2018center of gravity is shifting to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":482,"featured_media":35292,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[52,56,2075,142],"class_list":["post-35290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-china","tag-indo-pacific","tag-power-dynamics","tag-regional-security"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAsia\u2019s new entente | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/asias-new-entente\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Asia\u2019s new entente | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"US President Donald Trump is arriving in Asia at a moment when the region\u2019s security situation is practically white-hot. 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